Cycle 2 Begins...

Our friend, Anne, reminded me yesterday that I failed to update my blog last week. I suppose I was feeling so good on my week off that I didn't stay on top of my blogging. I will try not to skip a week in the future.

After the initial two days of nausea and two days of tolerating a constantly runny nose after my January 23 treatment, I felt very good these past two weeks. I drank some wine in the evenings, stayed up a little bit later at night, cooked dinner a few times and, yes, finally got some house cleaning done last weekend. It's strange to me that I feel like I'm not contributing to the household if I'm not keeping up with the housekeeping or cooking, despite the fact that Ed is doing a terrific job of taking on additional chores. (He did a fabulous job on the bathroom!) I suppose over time we've delineated our responsibilities and when I'm not performing mine, I feel guilty. Whatever the reason, I did feel better after getting a little dusting and vacuuming done.

Yesterday was the first treatment of my second cycle, and although I feel less fatigued so far than last time, the nausea is back. So far I've avoided taking any medication because I don't like the side effects and restrictions listed on the insert, but if keeping a little bit of food in my stomach ceases to help, I will have to break down and take it. While food seems to taste the same, water started tasting strange to me following my treatment yesterday. It's not really a metallic taste, but it's somewhat "off." Ed picked up some seltzer for me to try and I'm also going to try some Pelligrino. It's not bad enough that I'm not drinking water, but it's no longer tasteless. We'll see how long that lasts. As long as it doesn't make wine taste weird, I'm sure I can handle it. :)

Other than making a trip out to the bank this morning, I've been indoors since we got home from NYC yesterday around 3. My appointment was at 8:15 and my treatment started at 9:45. My bloodcounts are still good, and although I had a small clog in my port, the treatment went off without a hitch. We were done by 11:15 and since we had eaten breakfast at 6:30, we stopped for lunch before I went back to the office for a few hours. Since I started to get very tired around 1:30, we called it a day and headed back home.

I must give the chemo nurses at MSK kudos. Yesterday I was attended to by Bridget, who, like all of the chemo nurses I've dealt with thus far, was friendly, thoughtful, competent and able to make an unpleasant situation less of a chore. I don't know how they all keep their good nature and sunny dispositions considering the work they do, but I know I appreciate it.

Thanks again to Kate, who "met" me in Tobago yesterday morning. She must have been up early out there in Texas and generating images of heat and sun long before 9 a.m., because despite the fact that it was only in the 30s at 7 a.m., I was walking around the office and then MSK wearing only a T-shirt (and pants, of course). During our cruise, we took an all-day excursion on a catamaran and visited two lovely, water-accessible only spots for snorkeling and swimming. If you have looked at my Webshots album, that is the day we were visited by the stingray. It was a beautiful, picture perfect, sunny, warm, gorgeous day, and Kate and I did our best to help use up the boat's supply of rum. We are now official "Island Girls" and have the shirts to prove it (in fact, I'm wearing it in my new profile photo). Thanks for the visit, Kate. Since it was only a 14-day cruise, you're going to run out of places to visit pretty soon! Looks like we'll have to book another cruise together.

Thanks, as always, to all of you who send me positive thoughts and check in on me by phone or e-mail. Your thoughtfulness and concern mean so much to me.

Until the next time...